SPLASHDOWN

10 years ago

Toilet Flooded on Space Station

On the anniversary weekend of the moon launch, astronauts on the International Space Station might have to revert to Apollo 11-era tactics of waste collection. One of two toilets flooded on the station, and it could take days to fix. Astronaut Hal Getzelman told the crew to "put an out-of-service note" on the bathroom, and to use the "Russian toilet" for now. There are a record 13 people in the station, all of whom are being told to space out their bathroom breaks by at least six minutes and periodically allow a 30-minute "cooldown" period. If the bathroom fails, the astronauts will have to use waste-collection bags similar to those used 40 years ago, when there were no toilets in the lunar modules.